Navya: I don’t think either was the case.
Balram [Gets up]: I understand your loss and we shall investigate the matter. If you come across any information that incites your suspicion, please let me know. [Balram opens his wallet, pulls out his visiting card and hands it over to Naveen.] Please come along to identify the body and to record your statement.
[Exit: Balram with Navya and Naveen seen off by Rakesh. Rakesh talks to Rekha and others (mime).]
[Exit: all except Rakesh. He goes into his chamber and broods over the matter with his head buried in his hands placed on the table. Curtains down]
Scene - 7
[Curtains up: In the Naveen’s drawing room Navya is morose in the sofa. Seven chimes of the clock (not in the scene). At the sound of the door buzzer, Navya gets up and goes to the door.]
Navya: Nice you’ve come.
[Enter: Rekha and Rachana and they shake hands with Navya.]
Rekha: How are your parents?
Navya: They have a long way to go.
Rekha: Well, time is a great healer
Navya: But I wonder whether I could have averted the mishap
Rekha: It’s a case of ifs and buts but you can make a difference to Nrityas in the making.
Rachana: You know madam had resigned on moral grounds.
Rekha: Well, after that immoral silence.
Navya: Looks like it was all pre-destined. What was her barbadijest but a premonition?
Rachana: What was it about?
Navya: [In tears] When I said she was welcome to being a Hyderabadi, didn’t she joke that it sounded like barbadi.
Rekha: But for her ill-fate, why a decent guy like Nayak should have misbehaved as he did? When I confronted him, he confessed his guilt and expressed regret. I asked him why he behaved out of character; he said that as he is nearing sixty, he began to see the beginning of the end of his sex life. Why, having stuck to his wife all his life; he thought that he missed the thrills on the frill. It was his sense of deprivation that drove him towards Nritya. When I asked him why he pressurized her the day she joined, he said he wanted to overwhelm her without giving her time to think for herself or consult with others.
Navya: Whatever, he got away with it having abetted, didn’t the police close the case once and for all.
Rekha: Since he was not brought to justice, you can say so. But he resigned on his own to atone for his sin.
Navya: Would that bring her back to life?
Rekha: But it won’t take his life forward the way he wanted it to be. Why her tragic death farcically ended his quest for variety before it ever began.